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Magento B2B Payment Gateway Developer Selection – CenPOS vs Authorize.net vs

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Which is the best payment gateway for Magento developers B2B clients?

The answer lies in Magento top user concerns, which are security & PCI Compliance, cost, customer experience and flexibility with other systems including ERP and accounting.

Security and PCI Compliance: PCI should be a non-issue as any payment gateway being suggested for a B2B company should be level 1 PCI Compliant. However, developers can help merchants reduce PCI Compliance burden by partnering with a B2B payment gateway specialist who can recommend payment gateway solutions compatible with all business needs, not just Magento. For example, does the business also send invoices from an ERP? Do salesmen or credit managers get credit card numbers via fax or phone? Magento developers are not experts in payments and cannot be expected to ask the right questions to help solve unrelated compliance problems.

Internal and external fraud protection are critical. At a minimum, the payment gateway must support 3-D Secure, including Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode to shift liability for certain types of fraud from merchant to card issuer.

Payment Gateway Cost: The worst mistake is recommending or selection a payment gateway based on per transaction cost. The payment gateway plays a critical role in interchange rate qualification, which comprises over 95% of merchant fees. Gateway capabilities, and lack thereof, can literally double the cost of credit card acceptance for B2B. The most important base criteria is it must support Level 3 processing. There are many nuances to qualifying transactions correctly, that most credit card processor salesmen don’t understand, so there’s little expectation a developer would have the global financial expertise to recommend the best choice.

Treasury Management: Where are your customers? Where are your offices? What currency do you want to collect and bill in? Authorize.net has virtually nothing to help manage cross-border sales. CenPOS has a multitude of treasury solutions that can be customized.

For example, a company bills everything from the US, but also has operations in Canada and the European Union. Authorize.net will process every transaction in USD. The company pays cross-border fees on foreign issued cards, which now exceed 1% in some cases, and then pays again to repatriate revenue back to the EU or Canadian operations. CenPOS automatically identifies and processes the transaction in the local issuer currency, avoiding costly cross-border fees and more expensive US interchange rates, and deposits in the regional account. It does this seamlessly with no special developer programming.

Customer Experience: Will the gateway enhance or detract? In most cases, there’s very little difference in the checkout experience, but for B2B, there’s a bigger picture. What if the customer buys via multiple channels? Sharing tokens across multiple channels, including for emailed invoices may be important. A holistic look at all sales channels and payment methods is essential, but it’s not a good use of a developers time, thus deferring to payment expert will yield a better ROI for developer and better result for the business.

Flexibility: Payment acceptance types, global availability, omnichannel integrations, flexibility and scalability are all factors in choosing not only the best B2B payment gateway for Magento, but also for the entire organization. For example, if there’s also a retail component, US businesses also need an EMV solution that supports level 3 processing for retail. If the distributor is global, how many countries is the gateway available in?

Back Office Efficiency: If you’ve ever done research in Authorize.net reports, and then in CenPOS, you’ll appreciate the massive difference between download and search vs dynamic drill down within CenPOS online reports. CenPOS reports were designed with input from today’s businesses, not those of over a decade ago. Too many differences to mention here.

There’s a plethora of misinformation across multiple industries ranging from consultants to developers. Defaulting to Authorize.net or Payflow Pro because they’re two of the oldest payment gateways, is an injustice to the end user. Payment gateway selection plays a crucial role in business profits, security and efficiency. By partnering with a payments expert, clients are provided the best solution, and Magento developers can grow revenues with specialty implementation and add-on services the expert recommends.  

“I have some knowledge of Magento, including as a developer in it’s early years, but I’m not a Magento expert,” says Christine Speedy, owner of 3D Merchant Services and B2B payment gateway expert. “Likewise, there are great B2B Magento developers, that are not payment gateway experts. By partnering, we can offer businesses more appropriate solutions to maximize profits and security, while also mutually benefiting. “

EMV TERMINAL SELECTION IMPACTS PROFITS FOR BUSINESS TO BUSINESS

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What’s the most important EMV implementation criteria for business to business retail? Supporting level III data, which increases profit margins by qualifying credit card transactions for the lowest interchange rates possible. With proper terminal selection, businesses can quickly offset the cost of compliance for chip card acceptance, and protect long-term profit margins.

“The most recommended terminals in the US, including all the First Data FD series, Verifone VX series, and Ingenico iCT series terminals, do not meet critical business to business needs to protect profit margins, ” said Christine Speedy, a global CenPOS Authorized Reseller.

Interchange is the primary component of credit card processing fees, typically accounting for over 95% of fees. For business to business (B2B), including building supply and HVAC, many customers use corporate, business and purchasing cards. By qualifying these cards for level III interchange rates, B2B merchants can boost margins significantly. For example, the MasterCard interchange rate can drop from 2.65% to 1.80%, for transactions under $7500, and even more for larger transactions.

What’s needed to qualify for level III rates? The US EMV ecosystem at a minimum requires a web-based payment gateway that has certified an EMV terminal with level III processing to a specific acquirer. That’s because the extra data needed for the transaction is too cumbersome for a countertop terminal, but can be easily managed with a cloud solution. For example, CenPOS has certified the Verifone MX915 to First Data, Chase Paymentech and Tsys, the latter which enables use with most processors. Merchants can use CenPOS via a web browser virtually instantly or an integrated application.

While there is no mandate for chip card acceptance, effective October 1, the party that does not support EMV (short for Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip card acceptance is liable for counterfeit card, and sometimes lost or stolen card transactions. Additionally, non-EMV compliance fees have already been announced by at least one provider starting January 1, 2016.

About CenPOS
CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS’ secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships.

For global sales and integrations, contact authorized reseller Christine Speedy 954-942-0483.

 

Credit Card Processing and EMV For Business to Business

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Are business to business merchants being steered to expensive EMV credit card processing solutions? Yes. Too many banks, acquirers and software companies have limited EMV terminal solutions, and none of them are the best solution for business to business (b2b) companies that have a retail component.

Critical Credit Card Processing Needs for Business to Business

  1. Level 3 processing to reduce merchant fees. level 3 interchange rates
  2. Card not present risk mitigation for key entered and online payments, including securing card data collection, and preventing fraud.
  3. Token billing to securely store card data for variable recurring billing.
  4. Flexibility to collect payments from multiple sources and multiple payment types.

Common B2B EMV terminal solutions

There are two types of terminals. The most common type has software loaded on the terminal. For example, the Verifone VX520 with Vx820 EMV & NFC pinpad.

Verifone VX520 VX805 EMV terminal

Verifone VX520 with VX805 EMV terminal

The second type requires an internet connection to a payment gateway. The gateway  manages the terminal, which is essentially a slave to the gateway.

ingenico isc250 signature capture terminal

ingenico isc250 touch signature capture terminal with EMV and NFC.

The first option above doesn’t meet any of the critical B2B needs, yet is the most common solution offered to every company, without regard to business type. The second option is capable of meeting critical B2B needs, but only if the payment gateway supports them.  The only payment gateway with EMV certified terminal and level III processing retail certification is CenPOS. CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS’s secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. 3D Merchant Services is an authorized CenPOS reseller.

Business to business merchants with a retail business element are advised to consult with a payments expert who offers level III processing for retail. The rest doesn’t matter if this need cannot be met, so it’s an easy way to differentiate those who are selling whatever they have to offer and those who are solving problems to make your business more profitable.

Level 3 Gateway

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Level 3 payment processing requires a level 3 gateway, but most merchants don’t realize how big an impact gateway selection has on merchant fees paid.

Merchants selling to other businesses or the government benefit from Level 3 processing and the savings this provides on commercial, purchasing and government transactions by processing level 3 Data. What gateway companies won’t tell you, is that not only do you need to send special data, but there are a bunch of rules to qualify for Data Rate III interchange rates as shown in the image below. Don’t follow the rules, and you’ll pay Data Rate I or Standard.

level 3 interchange ratesWhat are the rules? For starters, there are additional fields that must be submitted with the transaction. All the level 3 gateways support submitting the data, though they may do it in different ways. There are other rules such as the authorization and settlement amount must match. It’s unrealistic to expect any user to know all the rules for any transaction to qualify at the lowest interchange rate, so a payment gateway that automates that process is critical. This is where most payment gateways fail. They can submit data, but have no intelligence to help merchants comply with qualification rules.

What gateway supports level 3 for retail, kiosk, mobile or any swiped transaction? CenPOS.

Gateways must certify level 3 to each acquirer, also known as payment processor, or credit card processor. The certifications can include for retail, retail EMV, MOTO (Mail Order Telephone Order), and ecommerce. Very few gateways certify level 3 for all sales channels. The only one I’m aware of that’s certified retail and retail EMV is CenPOS.

Gateways supporting level 3 for MOTO:

What level 3 gateway is compatible with First Data? CenPOS, First Data Global Gateway e4 – now called Payeezy. While CenPOS automates level III processing, First Data has multiple optional steps after the sale, leaving compliance up to the individual user; additionally, their method does not guarantee that all rules will be met to qualify for level III interchange rates. Authorize.net and Payflow Pro offer level III with certain API’s only.

What level 3 gateway is compatible with Vantiv or NPC? CenPOS

What level 3 gateway is compatible with Chase Paymentech? CenPOS, Paymentech Orbital, PayTrace. Paymentech and Paytrace have optional extra steps, leaving compliance up to the individual user; additionally, their methods do not guarantee that all rules will be met to qualify for level III interchange rates. Authorize.net and Payflow Pro offer level III with certain API’s only.

What level 3 gateway is compatible with Tsys? CenPOS, eProcessing Network, Authorize.net and Payflow Pro offer level III with certain API’s only

What level 3 gateway is compatible with Moneris? CenPOS

What about Revolution Payments, Vantage Card Services and other gateways not listed here? In most cases, the company is a reseller of a gateway listed above, not a gateway manufacturer. Network Merchants, LLC (NMI) distributes a white label solution that supports level 3 data, but there’s no public information about acquirer certification; BluePay and 3DSI also offer level 3, but it’s unclear what acquirers. Please add your suggestions in comments.

As of September 15, 2015, of the brands listed in this post, only CenPOS has both certified EMV terminals to accept chip cards with their gateway, and has also certified level 3 processing for all sales channels via any method, including API, virtual terminal, and online payments.